Me an' Jesus by L. E. Froom

Pacific Press Publishing Association · Mountain View, California · Nov 5, 1912

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 39, No. 43.

"Me an' Jesus"

By L. E. Froom

IN the sunny Southland not long ago, an old colored "auntie" was sitting in the door of her humble cottage, humming, "Jesus, Lover of My Soul." A passer-by thought to cheer, and asked, "Well, auntie, are you living here all alone?"

"Jus' me an' Jesus, massa."

She had found that the way to be happy is by living close to Jesus.

Reader, have you grown weary of bearing the burdens of life all alone? Have you bravely labored to perform your daily tasks, and failed because you worked all alone? Courage, friend! Hope sees a star.

"Come to Me, all you toiling and burdened ones, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me; for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For it is good to bear My yoke, and My burden is light."—Weymouth's translation.

It is Jesus that speaks. He offers rest to those who have tried all alone—and failed. He offers to help you bear the burden of life—for a yoke is made for two. What a thought! Yoked up with the Prince of Life, to bear life's burdens! Of course they will be light with such royal help.

The greatest problem in the world is how to bear successfully life's burdens. Each life has its sorrows and trials, its disappointments and hardships. Many have tried to solve the problem, and failed because they tried it alone. An unhelped cross is the heaviest thing a man ever carried; but a Christ-touched burden is the lightest one a man ever shared. A yoke is made for two. That is Christ's solution, and it is the only successful one.

Many think the yoke is some additional burden laid upon the Christian. Not so. Think of the familiar figure of the patient oxen. Without a yoke the load is intolerable, the task impossible. It is to make the burden bearable that yokes are used. They

do not take away the reality of the load, nor relieve one from bearing it. They help to bear it happily and contentedly, help to make a success of bearing it.

Jesus spent many years at the carpenter's bench. He used this striking figure because doubtless with His own hands He had often fashioned the wooden yoke.

He knew the difference between the ill-fitting yoke that galled, and the smooth one that fitted and rested easy. He knew how to make them fit right. That is what He is offering now.

Many fail because they try to yoke up to Jesus with their own yokes. But the Master says, "Take My yoke upon you." Somehow our yokes do not rest easy. But the great burden Bearer knows just how to fit us so the burden will be light and the yoke good to bear.

How are we to take Christ's yoke? — First, He must place it upon our shoulders, for He knows just how to adjust it.

Our part is to receive it. We must surrender ourselves to Him for service, meet life as He met it, think His thoughts after Him. This we can not do of ourselves; but He never asks us to bear a burden He is not ready to share, and to carry the heavier end.

Yoked up with Him, we will not say things we used to say, nor do things we sometimes did. Neither will we go into questionable paths — for Jesus is yoked up with us, and we know He would not go. We will not get ahead of Him and try to lead the way, nor drag behind; for then it is "side by side." Even when we "pass through the shadow," we need "fear no evil," for He is ever with us.

Thus will come into the life that sweet "peace that passeth all understanding." The burdens, too, will be lighter, for now it's "me an' Jesus."

Takoma Park, D. C.